Outdoor Warning Sirens: Obsolete Technology or Valuable Safety Devices?

By Andrew Danielson

Tornado siren.

For those of us in the Midwest, outdoor warning sirens, commonly called “tornado sirens” are a sound that is almost familiar, frequently triggering during periods of severe weather.

But with the advent of modern technology, such as severe weather alerts sent to one’s cellphone or broadcast on television, a debate has erupted in the public sphere.

Are tornado sirens effective tools that can save lives, or are they relics of a bygone and technologically illiterate past?

Following the deadly floods in the US last year, particularly in Texas, that debate has only intensified.

History of a Siren

Don Sell (WB9TYJ) is a licensed amateur radio operator and a recently retired professional meteorologist that provided aviation weather reports to air traffic control at Fort Wayne International Airport. He outlined some of the background history to outdoor sirens.

According to Sell, warning sirens got their start in World War II.

At the time, the sirens were intended to warn residents of incoming air raids. With cellular technology not even invented and television just starting to enter the family home, these blaring trumpets of alarm were new technology for the era.

Following the Second World War, the sirens changed purpose from warning of incoming raid sirens to warning of impending nuclear attack. It was the Cold War, and fears of a nuclear conflagration erupting between the United States and the Soviet Union provided a perfect use for the sirens.

Sell said that tornado sirens first came to be used as severe weather alarms following the 1974 tornado outbreak.

That outbreak of severe, damaging weather was no joke.

On April 3-4 of 1974, the central and eastern portions of the United States, as well as parts of Canada, experienced one of the most severe tornado outbreaks in history according to an article on the webpage of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The federal agency stated that the outbreak of tornadoes was so deadly that over 6,000 people were injured, with 335 “direct fatalities” and financial losses extending into the billions.

The Limitations of a Tornado Siren

But how effective a tornado siren may be in America today is up for debate.

Jim Elliott (KE9IWX) is another meteorologist that worked with Sell at the Fort Wayne International Airport providing aviation weather reports. He shares Sell’s hobby of amateur radio and provided some of the pros and cons of outdoor warning systems.

Elliott said that the sirens are intended primarily to warn people who are outdoors, such as folks enjoying an outdoor sporting or music event or perhaps walking across the PFW campus between classes. For these folks, a tornado siren would be perfect since everyone is outdoors and should be capable of hearing the siren’s warning wail.

But what about people in their homes?

Elliott said that sirens have limitations when it comes to warning people who are indoors.

“Today’s homes are well insulated,” Elliott said. “Sometimes, if I’m in my house, I cannot hear those sirens.”

The Financial Cost of a Tornado Siren

There is another angle to the impact of outdoor warning sirens, and that’s the financial cost of maintaining or repairing the current outdoor tornado siren system.

Last year, Channel 21 published an article about the Allen County warning siren system, interviewing Bernie Beier.

Beier is the county emergency management and disaster preparedness director, and a military veteran with combat experience having served with the U.S. Marine Corps.

Beier estimated that Allen County would need anywhere from $700,000 to possibly $1.2 million to totally update the current warning system, according to Channel 21’s article.

Finances are a common theme in the on-going national discussion about outdoor warning sirens.

Officials in Texas, following the deadly July, 2025 flash flooding that killed over 100 people, have been mulling over the prospects of installing outdoor sirens as a last line of defense to warn communities of rising flood waters.

NBC published an article discussing the possible effectiveness of outdoor warning sirens that were used in one Texas community, Comfort, which was downstream from the harder hit areas of Texas.

Comfort had recently installed a two-siren warning system, according to the NBC report. Comfort experienced no fatalities during the flash flooding – a stark contrast to the experience of communities lying upstream in Kerr County which did not have outdoor warning sirens.

NBC did clarify in the article that outdoor warning sirens are meant for folks outdoors, not asleep in their homes. Many of the fatalities that occurred in Kerr County were people who were indoors.

 However, the lack of victims in Comfort versus those in Kerr County suggests that possibly, outdoor warning sirens may have been a contributing factory in saving peoples’ lives.

How Outdoor Warning Sirens Function

Yet another aspect of tornado sirens is the technology used versus modern cellular systems. Today’s smartphones have access to emergency alerts, and public TV and radio stations will also broadcast severe weather warnings.

“Everybody has a cell phone,” Elliott said.

That proliferation of technology should mean that the majority of a community’s population will receive automatic alerts sent directly to their personal device, negating the need for tornado sirens.

But what if cell coverage is spotty or knocked out?

“Those alerts may not get through,” according to NBC. “Particularly in rural areas with bad service or in the night when phones are off.”  

Even modern technology isn’t fool proof. There’s debate on whether or not cellular and internet service are truly reliable.

“You’re dealing with cell towers, you’re dealing with cellular networks, you’re dealing with the internet,” Sell said. “How reliable is that when a tornado comes ripping through here and tears everything up?”

Warning Siren Upkeep

Efforts are being made by volunteers and warning siren officials to keep track of how Allen County’s warning sirens are doing.

Jim Moehring (KB9WWM) has been a licensed amateur radio operator since 2000, upgrading to the top-level amateur radio license “Amateur Extra class,” in November of 2001.

Moehring said that he was intrigued by emergency communications particularly after the 9/11 terror attacks that struck the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon.

Since that time, Moehring has become heavily involved with emergency communications provided by ham radio operators, particularly through a program called ARES – the Amateur Radio Emergency Service.

According to the American Radio Relay League, ARES “…consists of licensed amateurs who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment … for communications duty in the public service when disaster strikes.”

Moehring has served on a variety of local and state-level positions with ARES. He currently serves as the emergency coordinator of Allen County, as well as the district three coordinator, which includes 11 counties throughout northeast Indiana.

One of the services that the ARES team in Allen County provides is to help with the monthly tornado siren tests.

Moehring explained that the radio amateurs in the ARES team collaborate with officials in Allen County in charge of the sirens, to test the performance and ability of the outdoor warning system.

Held the first Wednesday of every month at noon (except for times of inclement weather when the public may confuse a test with an actual weather emergency), Moehring said that the monthly tests are a good way for radio amateurs to test their equipment and to give back to the community.

“It’s part of our community service to do that,” Moehring said.

He explained that he has 10-12 operators who fan out across the county and listen to their assigned siren. Once the sirens have finished their activation, operators use their portable amateur radio sets to communicate to Moehring in an organized, on-the-air gathering called a “net.”

Operators report on the status of their assigned siren, including listing how long the siren was activated, whether or not the siren rotated (not all sirens are designed to rotate), and whether the siren had good volume output.

Moehring said that the warning sirens in Allen County are turned on and off remotely by officials via a series of tones sent over radio waves. 

He explained that one of the benefits of ham radio operators participating in the test is that officials can easily get a status report of many sirens in a short period of time.

“It makes the job of making sure the sirens are working much easier,” he said, “Because it takes us about 10 minutes to get all the reports in.”

Moehring said that sirens who don’t have a volunteer listening for the siren require officials to either send out a staff person to that site or call someone living near the siren. That can take up a lot of valuable time, so the service the hams provide is welcomed by officials.

Moehring shared a similar viewpoint when it comes to the effective of sirens to warn people indoors.

“They’re not effective for anything indoors unless you happen to be right underneath one or very close to one,” he said.

Are Sirens the Answer?

It’s difficult to draw a conclusion as to the effectiveness of the sirens. The expense of the system makes it prohibitive for counties and small communities to invest in the necessary resources required to maintain and update these systems.

On the other hand, it appears that alternative means of warning are not as bulletproof as could be wished. A damaged cellular system or failure of internet service providers could potentially knock out two of the most modern means officials have of warning citizens of impending weather dangers.

Perhaps the best way of viewing warning sirens is that they are an older technology that serves a useful purpose – to act as a backup and final means to warn residents of impending danger.

If residents have access to any other forms of technology, they should have those devices ready to go and be monitoring for severe weather as it approaches their community.

“The best way is through your local media – the radio, the TV stations,” Elliott said. “Also, the NOAA weather radio is a great source [of severe weather information] as well.”

For Sell, the reliability of modern technology and alerts all depends on cellular and internet systems remaining active and functional.

Whatever communities decide to do in regard to warning sirens, there will hopefully always be volunteers like Moehring who will support their communities with their radio sets and their volunteer service.

For more information on NOAA weather radio, please visit the following web link. https://www.weather.gov/nwr/